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Khalm Clans
"We are a proud race, and stand with our brothers like no other. So our clans may quarrel as often as the nations war eachother... but that is just our way. If we did not have enemies, then the whole world would be wearing kilts, painted blue." -'Geddi the trapper' =Origin= The Khalm clans are linked to a mysterious origin. The northern clans say the Khalm humans crawled from caves, and in a massive number built their great city. Southern clans are split, in the east generally they believe they were born from the seeds of a mother tree, this idea has spread to all the eastern clans too. The south western clans feel that they were always here from the begining of time until a great fire bird came and killed nearly every Khalmsman. Lastly the western clans feel that they came from the heavens put here by the great spirits. =Mysticism= There are many local gods native to the Khalm Clans. The only gods that are universal to these clans are the great rain mother, the father tree, and the great bear. All others are local heroes who have been deified into divine figure-heads of society. =Cities= Udivieu is the home of the Genduy Clan Barlose is home to the Zeats Coddis is home to the Coddi Huvenes is the home to the Dabboi Vaes is the home of the Caasif Nanna'es is the home of the Bezded Mursai'i is home of the Mursai. =Warfare= It is a rare event to find the Khalm Clans fighting head-on in open fields of war with devoted enemies. Most often they Khalic forces prefer to hide around and in trees, jumping out at enemy marching soldiers in ambushes. Since trees are not always around the Khalm Clans will hide around just about anything, especially famous for jumping out of crops and tall grass. They mostly arm themselves with hatchets, sickles, and farm equiptment, however the elite and powerful will take up short swords designed to cut and stab. Armor is very uncommon amongst these band of brothers, many feel it is for the weak, and they find true honor fighting naked or as close to naked as possible given the weather. There are times when open combat is unavoidable, as well as defending their homelands and assulting cities. This calls for the tactics that many dread from the Khalm Clans, bringing chaos with orderly chaos. On the open field the men line up with naked spearmen in th front wearing only capes decorated with their clan's colors and weilding body-long spears and shields. They then arrange themselves into blocks with around eighty men (twenty columns and four rows). Each block stands side-by-side and march at a walking pace with the real killers behind them. The spearmen remain silent until the enemies are in sight, where-as they yell, shout, and foam at the mouth as the naked and painted spearmen run at the enemies in their blocks to tie them up. Then the kilt-clad elites follow behind, with axes on the first wave to reinforce the spearmen's lines who will usually break, followed by the minors who are armed with farming tools. These minors make it seem as if they will reinfoce the back, but to the suprise of the enemies will run at the sides, and deliver a shock that will break formations or kill them. The true elites them wait in the rear with short and long swords wearing kilts and painted in woad. The druids remain behind them, chanting and praising great heroes and gods to encourage the men. The finale is given in a typical situation when internal and external organs are tosses by lines of elites at the enemies to show them their fate. These organs are tied to weights so that some may die. If this does not cause an enemy to rout then the kilt-clad swordsmen run to their charge with the druids and chiefs just behind. Archers are not uncommon in these battles, but always stay back until out of arrows or being assulted. In terms of siege, the Khalic scouts scan the area during the cold to check for weaknesses in walls, food supplies, roads, and the sort. Then, if no wall is present the open field tactics occure with infiltrators atop buildings shooting arrows substituted for flanks. The men are then funneled into the village until it is captured and all resistance is killed off. This works decent enough but often walls are present, and the fear-mongering tactics rarely work. The walls are a must go, and if the druids can not rip them down with chants then the strongest peasants are given battering rams to smash through weak points in the wall. Often the rush to the wall leads to the majority of casulties, but their typical tactics follow to cause a moment's relief for when men run to the back of the lines. Death follows on these assults, and both sides will suffer great casulties. Another popular form of siege, is simply starving the foe out, and pillaging the crops. When the starving men can not take it anymore they will often surrender, if they do not surrender during this period then they will rush out from the walls and be surrounded in a crescent formation by the spearmen and stabbed like boars. =Culture= Khalm is a realm of war, and the harsh men who live there live to fight and die. As the old Ituscan phrase goes, "Never have I seen a Khalmsmen drink wine, and never have I seen ____" (The blank being what is proposed), implies that the Khalic clans are always ready and never drunk. Wine, beer, ale, mead, grog, rum, and the sort are all banned from nearly every Khalm clan. This is to keep their men strong at all times, and women able to whip their men up as fighters in times of war. Many neighboring powers feel that war is all the Khalm know, and death is the sole purpose for them to live, and this is an error. The Khalm are also famed farmers, animal herders, and mystics. Although trade is rare and nearly invisible in the tribes the men do allow merchants to come and go unharassed. When a Khalmsman says something, he will stand by it to his dying breath, but they will often tell half-truths or mislead their listeners much like gypsies. Category: De'tetoom